On Wednesday, August 03, 2005 at 12:24:31 PM [GMT -0500], Sacksa wrote: Of course, I'm not really here to point you in one direction or the other. The final decision is yours since you have your own personal sentiments and best know your own situation. My only intention is make you aware of what IMAP will entail and to allay any concerns you may have. With a balanced appraisal, you can make a better judgement/decision. Be very careful listening to and getting advice on IMAP from those who don't use it. I'm not saying their advice is utterly without merit. It's just that the experiences of actual IMAP users who were in fact POP users amounts to more.
> Space limitations: This was my concern for a long time and had a lot to do with why I ran my own server. I no longer do so since I'm more familiar with my space consumption. > I am not all that familiar with IMAP; however, > AIUI, with IMAP mail is left on the server. With POP, it is > downloaded. The advantage of IMAP with multiple computers is > obvious. However, I get a LOT of mail: at least a dozen list servs > plus personal mail. I easily get 250-350 messages/day. Same here. List mail isn't what takes up my hard disk. It's private mail which tends to have a lot of attachments. > I get mail from four servers. With two I have 1gb space limitations. I > will have to check and see how quickly those bytes are being used up, > but space may be an issue. OTOH, I have lots of space on the computers > at home. It takes a lot of mail to consume 1 GB. When I switched to FastMail, my mail occupied 700MB of disk space. This was mail that spanned a couple years. I have 2GB of server disk space with FastMail and will archive as I go along if needed, though at the rate I'm going, I doubt that I'll need to do archiving more than as having a local backup. 2GB is more than enough space to keep my current mail in, i.e., mail within 18 months of receipt. It's highly unusual that I'll need regular access to mail beyond that age. Nothing prevents me from having a local archive account in TB! that I just move mail to as needed. > IMAP risks: Mary's comments about people losing their mail and that > Ritlabs is still working on perfecting IMAP make me wary about using > it, just yet, for that reason alone. You see there now? I'm now wondering just when I'll start losing mail. As if I didn't lose mail while using POP. Ah, the hype now starts. If you read any list you'll likely come across such reports. I'd certainly not use that report as a reason to not try IMAP. I just checked TBBETA and don't see that report. Which is it? I hope it's not the one about a user who bogged down his IMAP server? > Although it may have been designed for those with multiple computers > in mind, until there is greater reliability across the board, why risk > losing mail? Then there is the security issue. I don't object to > keeping list serv mail on someone else's computer, but personal and > business mail is another issue. Just how secure is that mail when it > is stored on someone else's pc? I assume you backup your mail even when it's on your own machine?? Someone with your concern for lost mail surely does this. :) Do the same for IMAP. > Learning curves: I have used four different e-mail clients and my office > is about to migrate me from one client to another in the next week. So > the learning curve issue--and I may be underestimating the differences > between 1.62r and 3.51-- doesn't bother me. Learning curve often equals time invested for a better end. IMAP is largely seamless anyway. The curve isn't that big. > The security issue as well as the occasional problems we hear from > those who use IMAP are what will keep me from using IMAP for now. This is like the discussion about stairs vs elevators which was likely more heated when elevators came into being. There are those who will still use a staircase in favour of an elevator when possible. However, elevators make some building designs possible and we have to use them or getting around in such buildings become a serious problem. In those borderline situations where staircases are relatively hectic we may still use them and claim that it's good exercise. :) It's only when we hear from those who have used elevators for a long time and are still alive and have no stories of being stuck in one or dying in one, that we begin to feel encouraged that the anecdotal and vivid cases can't really be used to make that final decisions. Do you fly or take a boat? Do you use IMAP or continue with POP? :) Anyway, I had those concerns close to 2 years ago prior to switching to IMAP and I'm still here. :) With no lost mail. The last time I lost mail, I was using POP3. I was using a beta at the time. > This is a very simple solution that I like. For now I may just have > to forego accessing e-mail while I am on the road. (Well, I can still > access the servers directly, I just won't be able to use The Bat and > have access to all of my prior mail.) That was my limited existence prior to taking the leap to IMAP. It was a plunge indeed and one made with the knowledge that it's not a permanent solution and that I could easily switch back to POP if necessary. > However, if The Bat is on the pc and I use the laptop, at home, to > access the bat.exe file on the "server," when e-mail is either > downloaded or sent from the laptop while on the network, is the laptop > essentially doing these operations on the file that resides on the pc > (server) and so I don't need to then be concerned about > synchronization? Unfortunately no. When you run the exe on the server, it's like running an exe on the laptop. That's another user accessing that exe and a whole new TB! setup is created. You'd have to synchronise both mail directories regularly. Another option would be to get a zip drive or a large capacity memory stick and keep your mail directory on it. Then in both installations have TB! use the same directory. You just move your removeable media between machines. Otherwise, you'd have to sync to the stick when finished at one location and then sync to the next location from the stick before starting at the next location. -- -= Curtis =- The Bat! v3.51.10 System Specs: http://specs.aimlink.name -=-=- If all goes well, you've overlooked something! ________________________________________________ Current version is 3.51.10 | 'Using TBUDL' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
